The invention relates to panels having a decorative surface for forming flooring, to a method for producing the decors or visual indicia and to flooring made up of said panels. The invention also relates to a decorative paper.
In order to be able to easily transport and lay a flooring, this is, as a rule, formed from individual panels. Panels are, as a rule, firmly bonded to the subsurface and/or joined at the sides, for example by means of tongues and grooves. Laying is particularly easy when the coupling elements of panels, at the sides, are designed so that they can be joined together without adhesive. Various suitable adhesive-free connections of panels with a decorative surface are known from the Austrian patent AT 405 560 B.
A printed decorative paper usually determines the appearance of a laminate floor, As a rule, these are system decors, namely primarily wood reproductions, but also stone or fantasy images, for example with floral motifs. System decor is understood to mean that the printed image is adapted to fit the finished panel size. As a rule, these panels are about 1200-1400 mm long and about 200 mm wide. A 3-plank decorative print, for example known from WO 02/090129 A1, is designed, for example, so that three visible planks on the finished panel are each of equal width, and no so-called blocks (boards shorter than 50 mm) are formed at the ends (in the longitudinal direction). However, the decorative image ends with the panel length in each case.
A panel length of about 1200 mm has proved its worth. Manufacture, storage, transport, point of sale and laying are relatively easily possible with this length. Disadvantageously, however, the decorative pattern is limited to this length in each case.
Decorative laminate panels of the kind mentioned at the beginning, the decorative layers of which represent wood or minerals such as marble or granite, for example, are known from the publication DE 297 24 625 U1. In order to make the reproduction appear more realistic, the surface is provided with a structure, which reproduces the characteristic features of the pattern. In the case of a mineral, for example, this is a coarse, three-dimensional surface in order to reproduce a roughly polished stone. In the case of wood, pores are pressed into the decorative surface in order to imitate the pores of natural wood.
Further, it is known from the publication DE 297 24 625 U1 that the pattern of one panel must, as a rule, not be the same as the pattern of a second panel, as wood or stone also continuously exhibit at least a slightly changed appearance. With floorings formed of such panels, the transition from one panel to another is basically clearly visible, as the decors on the narrow and long sides of the panel are not, as a rule, matched with one another. A kind of block formation, often unintentionally, determines the appearance of the surface of the flooring.
Wooden floorboards with a rectangular surface are available commercially. The floorboards are elongated. When laid, one board usually extends from one wall of a room to an opposite wall without interruption. In this way, a continuous appearance of the surface is produced parallel to the long side of the respective floorboard. Disadvantageously, floorboards of this kind are however very expensive.
From the publication WO 02/090129 A1, it is known to visually match the surface pattern of a decorative layer on the narrow side of a panel with the surface pattern of a narrow side of an adjacent panel. This is intended to prevent the transition from one panel to the next being easily visible. Panels are provided with numbers for this purpose. The numbering must be taken into account when laying. It is therefore not possible to combine panels freely with one another during laying if panels in the flooring are to be invisible as far as possible, and if the formation of blocks is to be avoided.